I'm calling this one an artist review rather than an artist recommendation because I don't exactly recommend him , but there are some interesting genres and styles that he brings to the table.

First of all, who is he?Joseph N is a classically trains vocalist who released his new EP yesterday called <Believe>. What he aims to do is to fuse classical music and pop together within the chinese music scene , and to show to the younger generation a side to classical music they have never seen before.

Well, this is all well and good , and his concept and image really impressed me! But the thing is , he can talk the talk , but can he walk the walk?for all of you who are asking What Exactly Is classical Vocal Music? (me included) , I watched a few of his videos on YouTube (the link's down the bottom) and most of it seemed to be classics rather than classical. Classical is a huge genre and even covers electronica if you want to look at it technically , so that was a little but of a disappointment.

Most of the live covers that were on the YouTube page were old classics like <dream a little dream for me>,<Somewhere over the rainbow> and the famous <月亮代表我的心>. Done very tastefully in a bar-like atmosphere , just him and an accompanist with lilting jazzy improvisations.

But really , after all the credentials and all the stylings that made him out to be a classical singer , I still found his voice to be ordinary. It was smooth and obviously very well trained , but was kind of monotone and left me wanting more. Seeing his cover of <Moon River> , I couldn't help thinking that Khalil Fong's cover was much better , and in<Dream a little dream of me> , it was Gary chaw's voice that I thought would be a better fit for the song.

His EP is mostly English songs with a Chinese single titled <Belief> which was a pretty boring song in all ; no hook , nothing. And a god-awful key change at the end. A pet peeve of mine also is that even though his EP consists of mostly English songs , his Malaysian accent does spoil it a little and takes away from the atmosphere of the song. I would expect more from someone who has apparently had so much training experience as a professional vocalist.

Overall , he's not bad , but I'm not going to go as far as saying that he's great either. Amazing concept , fantastic aim of what he was going to bring , but from what I've heard so far , he just falls a bit short. However I still feel I must promote his album so here's the link for his EP <Belief> promo: